Take some time to meet the family.

Xiaoyu’s family is made up of some of the most interesting, kind, funny, and considerate people I have ever met. Lets take the next couple blogs to introduce ourselves to some of them shall we?

Xiaoyu’s mother, Xiao Ju Li:
In her 50’s, she is constantly being pestered by scientist from around the world all hoping for a chance to study how much energy can be contained in such a small being. I mean, literally this lady wears out anyone who dares to try to keep up with her. As a matter of fact, it can be quite taxing just to be around her sometimes when she is “going” . . . which is basically all the time.
I’m not sure either where she gets her energy from, but I have my theories. Maybe its because she eats well, and exercises. Although her financial situation hasn’t ever allowed her to eat like a queen, she tells me that she has always “eaten well” (meaning that she will only eat clean, healthy food). In fact, supposedly now if she eats something below her standards, she claims to have stomach problems. I can remember when she came home from work one day bragging about how all her workmates thought her stomach was so spoiled because she had to eat better than they did.

Her energy could also be the result of never really having the chance to slow down. I haven’t been able to get her to put it down in writing yet, but parts of her history have been given to me—when the situation calls for it—and I have tried my best to piece things together. Here is the little I have gathered. She is the oldest daughter in a family of six children. She has one older brother, but for those familiar with Chinese familial relationships you know how the mother spoils the oldest boy (as it “should” be his responsibility to take care of the parents as they grow old). This left the family’s first female, my mother-in-law with a daunting amount of responsibilities. My mother-in-law obviously took the responsibilities with style.

From what I can gather she was also a good student. She attended medical school, during which (or after? This is where things get a little blurry) she was sent off to the countryside to receive her “rural education,” as stipulated by Chairman Mao at that time for all “city dwellers.” She was also to teach the farmers about, and help enforce the newly formed One Child policy. I won’t get too much into this time of her life now, but this very well could have been the point at which she gained her familiarity with a superhuman work ethic. I enjoy Xiaoyu’s mom relaying stories from this era to me the best, as they usually involve angry individuals or families chasing after her with kitchen knifes (people are often quite angry when told that they are only allowed one child per family), or surgical operations in extreme situations for unbelievably long periods of time (30+ hours), with only a hard boiled egg shoved into your mouth every so often to work off of. For someone who lived like this for years on end, yeah, maybe things that make us all tired like a 9 to 5 work day, mopping the floor, or making some zha jiang noodles don’t really faze her. If that’s not enough, add in the fact that for a large part of her marriage (and Xiaoyu’s life) she was the breadwinner for the family, and that after her husband divorced her she had to start from zero, and provide for herself while also providing for her child’s education; a feat that not every husband and wife’s salary together can accomplish in modern China.

Finally, the only other possibility I can think of, is that she has some sort of mutant ability to sleep so soundly that when she wakes up she is completely recharged. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it, but I think this woman can literally sleep through anything. What is amazing, is not only how soundly she sleeps, but the speed at which she cruises off to dream land. Xiaoyu and I will be watching some movie on the TV located directly outside her room, and only about 4 feet away from her head, and she will say, “I’m going to sleep.” So I turn the TV down, and Xiaoyu says, “Don’t worry, it won’t wake her up.” Wake her up? How could it wake her up if she isn’t even aslee . . . and then I hear the heavy breathing of someone in deep (and I mean like Deep Space 9 deep) sleep. At 2 o’clock in the middle of the night, twenty tons of coal is slammed into the coal yard right outside our window by a large and loud frontloader. Xiaoyu and I can’t sleep a wink, while Xiaoyu’s mom claims to have no idea the next day of what sounded like us to be a backyard Armageddon. Amazing? Yes. Result of mutant powers? Most likely.

Of course there are many other amazing and awe-inspiring aspects of the wonderful person who we both call “ma,” and we could go on and on about how cool she is, however, we don’t want to be accused of bragging. I guess it’s like Confucius said though, “It’s not bragging if you can back it up!” Or . . . was that Muhammad Ali?